Creating the future
Featured in the Using Emotional Intelligence at Work training manual
By Mike Bagshaw
Category: Emotional Intelligence
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
One of the key tasks that people at work have to face is how to deal with the tension between managing the present and creating the future. With so much information to process, and so many tasks and opportunities, the sense of urgency can feel like tyranny. This is not a healthy feeling. People need to take time out to establish what is important, and what needs to be done to build the future. This is both for their sake, and for the sake of the organisation. There is inevitably a gap between the present situation and the desired situation, which can be either a motivational spur or the cause of frustration and helplessness.
You read out the story of the ‘Marshmallow’ test, which was the beginning of the concept of Emotional Intelligence. This leads to a discussion of deferred gratification and its relationship with dealing with urgency. Participants are asked to assess themselves in terms of their ‘addiction’ to urgency, and to consider what kind of future they are creating by the way they are behaving now. Next, there is an analysis of priorities in terms of urgency and importance, using a time-management matrix, where participants are asked to identify the important non-urgent things in their lives. The concept of creative tension is presented to increase understanding of the relationship between our current reality and our future desires. The participants conduct a personal visioning exercise, exploring some of the reasons why people find this difficult. The training activity is rounded off by an exercise in which the participants define what they will do now to move towards the future they want. You give a final summary of the key ways to manage creative tension.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to enable participants to develop time-management skills.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:10:00 |
| No of Pages: | 21 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers on programmes on managing change, personal development, time management and managing the future vision of the team or organisation.
Download the training activity, Creating the future as featured in the Fenman training manual; Using Emotional Intelligence at Work